On the job hunt...

So... the job hunt is well under way and I can really only comment one thing: where are all the jobs? Isn't America the land of opportunity? So WHERE are the opportunities? What ever happened to the American dream, with a great 9-5er and the white picket fence? Is it not time for the economic crisis to be OVER already?

As I'm sure you've guessed, I have come up empty-handed. My daily search of sites such as Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Craigslist.com, and ProZ.com have offered nothing more than a sinking feeling in my stomach everytime I see the "no matching job postings" glaring back at me like a bright red Do not enter sign. In my close to three weeks of searching I have had ONE blinking interview, which in all reality was a no-go before I even arrived at the office. I mean driving 40 miles each morning through "lovely" LA traffic for a job that at best in the same industry as what I plan to do permanently, and then driving another 40 miles home down the 405 into the heart of the 5 South/91 West traffic, well, I had a momentary lapse of judgement, that's all.

Truthfully, its disheartening waking up each morning and browsing through the lack of new job postings online. I knew it would never be easy, there are entirely too many (non-qualified) translators in the industry, but I guess I hadn't really prepared myself for the complete void that I now find in the job sector. In-house translator positions are not very common place in the States it would seem, and turning an established Language Service Provider away from their go-to Spanish translator is no easy feat, I would venture to say, even impossible. I know this because I worked in an LSP and I saw how hard it was for a beginning translator to get any work.

I guess as with everything, experience gets you what you want, but how do we get experience if no one will take a chance on a recent graduate? How do I get experience without work?

Here we go again...

Happy New Year... blaaaaaaah blah blah

I don't know why it is, but I swear I'm more cynical this time of year. When it comes down to it, I really quite despise the start of a new year. I mean just think... we have another whole 12 months to go before we reach the end of what could turn out to be a terrible year... or a great year... either way we will either want it to end sooner than that planned by God or we'll want it to last, which it will never do either. For instance, I would have liked last year to last another, oh forever... but it didn't, which was really kind of disappointing. Of course the new year brings new opportunities, new year's resolutions, a new you, but weren't there plenty of abandoned or unseized opportunities last year? Won't this year's resolutions die before the end of January anyway? Won't I resort back to the same person I was just a few miserable moments ago. That's the problem with change: when we want it, it very rarely lasts; when we don't want it, it's permanent.

On a brighter note though, I do have things to be thankful for. I'm back in the US with my family, although the job market here looks VERY scarce and I'm already bored after just a week. (If anyone in Southern Cali knows of a need for a Spanish translator PLEASE I'M BEGGING YOU CALL ME!) I made it though immigration with absolutely NO problem this time! Now for those of you who read my rant about the US immigration posted about 6 months ago, you'll know this was quite a blessing. I guess it pays 1. to go to a guy and 2. be prepared but mainly 1. go to a guy. Hell, even after landing at LAX at 11:05 pm on New Years Eve, miraculously I was able to make it through immigration, collect my bags, pass customs AND get to the car with Mommy and Brondt just in time to wish them a "happy" New Year. I suppose that really IS something to be thankful for considering how long I had been DREADING the reencounter with LAX immigration.

Today I was asked by a lady in Barnes and Noble, as I was browsing the Christian Help section: "If someone tried to kill you and now that someone is in prison and you were going to visit her, which book would you take?" I guess I have that to be thankful for too: no one has tried to kill me. I recommended the daily devotional on how to be a better woman of God.

Of course now that the new year is well under way there is no point in wishing I were still in 2010. I can only embrase what memories I have from before and hope I chance upon them or something similar this year. And I sincerely hope, that at the end of it, I no longer have to wait any longer to be with mi amor.